Someone gave this game 5 stars on insomnia.ac. It's not a 5-star game. This is a very interesting survival horror game though.

Day 1 impressions:
1. Controls
The controls are not as good as RE4*. The game borrows the laser-pointer handgun sight. You cannot snapturn to shoot enemies. This amazing feature has been lost forever, and now every third person game will control like Gears of War. Strafing is stupid. The looking to the side jolts the camera a little bit too harshly for my taste. Having lock-on is not smart addition as it allows you to track enemies you can't even see. Developers really need to copy the controls of RE4 exactly.

Opening doors takes too long; opening doors running is sweet though. However, the animation to open the doors is delayed that it is not a smooth breaking open of the door. Your characters melee attack animations are...meh. The game throws in qtes where you press one button and it's mediocre.

2. The stage design
The stage design is mediocre compared to RE4's first areas, Eternal Darkness' first areas, and REmake's first areas. The game has linear tight paths that you walk on. There is no big area to run around into different houses in. The game has a boxlike layout. It is pretty much small rectangular paths and then you'll walk into a bigger rectangular area where there will be a small cabin on the side.   

3. Enemies
The enemies are weird. Think a lamer version of RE4 ganados. You literally cap their asses because they walk with their backs facing you. It is a little silly. Enemies die in purple smoke plume which should be a red or black smoke plume instead. That would look better. Their death animations are less than okay. Killing enemies is not as satisfying as in RE games or Eternal Darkness because of the less than stellar attack animations and their death animations. Their ai seems to be normal. When their attacks hit you they don't have that stun-animation that gives enemy attacks a weight/more impact.

4. The story
Cool stuff. Obviously borrowing stuff from the Silent Hill games. Good dialogue. The text when you observe stuff is too slow and should have copied how RE4 handles text.

5. The difficulty
Can't really comment too much based on the first level on hard. Doesn't seem too difficult.

6. The graphics
Resident Evil 4 looks better. Graphics are fine though. 

7. Scare factor
Forcing me to run because of the eventual superior enemy defense against pistol that did get things a little tense. First level is not scary and has many odd (see: distracting) things that take you out of your immersion.

8. The cool new
-Heartrate gauge that causes your character to not be able to function normally and have to cool down.
-Flinging open doors while running

8. The stupid
-Not being able to use the axe that destroyed the generator.
-Not being able to shatter mirrors with gun fire.
-Crates breaking for no reason when you push them for an extended period of time.

9. Curiosities
-Infinite pistol ammo. This got me super cocky and questioning how the developers could ever do such a thing. This feature then got mitigated by having enemies block bullets and absorb lots of bullets making it useless when surrounded. It is strange to give a gun infinite ammo in a survival horror.

*RE4 equals RE4 on Gamecube NTSC version. f--- the rest. I always refer RE4 as the GC version in all posts unless I indicate otherwise fyi.

Despite the fact that DP obviously borrows its shooting mechanics from RE4, you'd do well not to compare the 2 too much, since they're very very different games. I can tell by the things you write (especially the part I quoted above) that you are still very VERY early in the game, so you haven't seen what constitutes one of its main gameplay aspects.

Needless to say, the tight linear paths are only one side of the game, and the game has more of a "doglike" layout than anything else

I'm glad to see you acknowledge the writing though, and also that you have no problem with the visuals, since I got tired of reading reviews that complained the game had "PS2-like graphics".

Deadly Premonition has its faults, but at the end of the day it's a fantastic and unparalleled experience, that definitely deserves all the praise it can get.

I'll second Amazingu. Yeah, DP is not a five star game by any means, yeah it has it's faults and yes, it's a little "out there" for some to digest. Lord knows I wasn't it's biggest fan at the beginning.

I'm glad I stuck it out, though. It's got a fantastic world on display with some truly unique characters and some genuinely gripping drama. Great soundtrack, too.

Day 2 Impressions:
1. Controlling agent and survival horror action
Can't really dodge some enemies in the narrow spaces of the hospital. I stupidly tried doing this and got hurt pretty bad. I don't know why I decided to dodge and run when I have a pistol with infinite bullets. A downer is that passed by enemies don't seem to be able to open doors (at least none did when I ran past them to the next connected room).

Enemies teleporting closer towards you reminds me of the cancelled version of RE4's Hookman. Enemies aren't scary so far and the developer should provide more situations where I am forced to run. Shooting enemies that slowly walk towards you is the exact opposite of how RE4 enemies were designed to stimulate gamers. The game lets you play cowardly by sniping enemies from afar with the pistol. Even the regenerators would shamble -- very disturbing to see -- to close in distance between you and them.

The RE4 style direction in this game was mishandled. Having a lot of enemies swarm you is fun when you have space to run or ways to attack your way out. Almost every enemy in this game is coming directly in front of you and not from the side which is a downer. So, the real problem is the level layout. Enemies pressuring the gamer without him having a escape route (only one narrow passageway to that door to advance in this game) makes things become impossible for the player to attempt to compensate his disadvantage as the space is too confined. Now if there was a powerful enemy dispersing weapon then you'd have a chance. 

The whole rush of running to another room that is hopefully safe is in this game somewhat. The thing is that the enemy revenge on the player was funneling him into a small space or corner when he runs further into the stage. The problem is that the developer has the stage funnel your movement area and not the enemies.

Also, there is no point of lock-on for your pistol. Quicker kills for headshots...

2. Story
The voice acting and dialogue continue to impress. Much better story direction than LA Noire. The text that appears from observation is white and sometimes blends in making it indistinguishable from light colored backgrounds.

3. Difficulty
Seems very hard to die in this game. The game is giving me too much items to use.

4. The stupid
-Shooting people causes them to duck. I was hoping it would cause a game over screen.
-Enemies using guns. Shootouts aren't very survival horror as it causes players to use cover shooter tactics.

5. Additional RE4 nods
-shooting bird nests.
-The victim's last name is Graham. Same last name of Ashley in RE4.

Day 3 Impressions:
I found another problem with this "5-star game". The spatial recognition (or detection box) enemies have is messed up. You cannot brush against enemies to pass them. This affects both the player and the enemies. The spatial recognition extends much further than the enemy's body which means that even if there is character-wide space opening in a narrow hallway between the wall and an enemy to pass by you get blocked. Enemies will also get stuck behind each other making it a possible to make a line up. This is inexcusable seeing as a crucial part of survival horror is to survive; if you can't escape enemies properly all is lost.

The game doesn't have brutal death animations like in RE4. One really fucked up enemy attack was to grab your tongue (trying to rip it out). It would have been really sick if the death animation had you without a tongue.

So my rental of the game is over. I couldn't play it for the last two days for more impressions because of a terrible headache I got if anyone cares. It makes sense for me to just buy the game instead of renting it as it is very cheap buy on ebay/stores now.

I bought this game from an eBay seller and it seems that I have a defective copy. I just went and bought a new wireless controller and the input lag is still there. It is really apparent when driving the car which makes it control very loose. Going to rent a copy from my game store and see if it works fine.

edit: Actually just looked at the disc itself and you can see discoloration (parts are lighter -- looks like shapes are forming on the media). So it's clearly defective. Guess that's what I get for buying from someone with 92.3% feedback. ugh.

Maybe this is the recent thing with XBOX360 games? It's not on the other games I own. Here is a picture of what it looks like in this thread: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/sho … p?t=228084

Buying used 360 games has always been a bit risky...

http://www.1up.com/news/360-disc-scratching-big-deal

Pathetic on Microsoft's part. Stuff like this is why I really despise them––this is a serious problem that they don't care to do anything about, and in fact I wouldn't be surprised if this exists on their part, so that stupid 360 players will just buy a new copy of their game when their old copy runs bad.

But the worst thing of all is simply the used 360 games market. You have this risk present in buying any used 360 game, unless you get it at, god forbid, gamestop, but at least you can check the quality there.

Uhhh, that article is from 2007. Shortly after the 360 was launched. Yeah, it had a bunch of problems, but as far as I know they've all been addressed. I also don't see how buying used 360 games is any more a risk than purchasing used games from other systems?

Okay. I rented the game from a game store and there is no difference with aiming between my eBay game and the rental. So it's not a defective copy after all. I rented the game so long ago I am surprised I did not note the aiming issue. When you move your aim sight to the left it is sluggish while moving to the right seems normal. Moving up and down is not accurate either. My aim sight is jumping higher than it should. Not smooth. From a game aping RE4 laser sight you would think they'd make aiming smooth and precise, esp. with the inclusion of shooting galleries. It's not a game-killer but it is annoying.

@avatar: bluray in particular is an extremely durable format––look it up. It's the format + the hardware that makes discs either last short or long, and the 360 hardware is, as this article says, bad for DVDs. I'd assume any other DVD format is just as (not as) durable.

Also, should I get this when it comes to PS3?

It also helps to realize that the action parts were originally never meant to be there.
It was originally only about the Adventure bits but they were more or less pressured into adding action scenes.

Yes.
Yes you should.

Do you have a source for that (added action parts), Amazingu?

Wow, sure is pissing and moaning in here.

I distinctly remember reading it, but I couldn't find any sources on it.
Swery has been doing some interviews recently for the Director's Cut though, and this one distinctly mentions it:

http://www.gamecritics.com/brandon-bale … ry-suehiro

Strange, not sure why an update of the updated version would be coming out now, but apparently it is

http://store.nisamerica.com/deadly-prem … ed-edition

I watched a Let's Play of this a few years ago, it was bad in that hilariously entertaining bad kind of way.

I'm glad it finally made its way to PS3.

And yes, I quite enjoy its soundtrack, too.

That's the thing, it's ALREADY been out on PS3 for over 2 years now (not counting the JP version that's been around since day one), so it seems really weird to suddenly release a collector's edition out of nowhere.

UNLESS........

Sequel incoming?

I only just found out about it sometime in the past 2 months, PSN had it on spotlight, so I thought it had only just been released.

PSN is such a labyrinthine mess to navigate.

The only way to find certain things is to type the title letter by letter, because some things just don't show up no matter which menu you choose.

The XBox online store is much better organized - everything is cataloged alphabetically - why does PSN find that so hard?

Don't want to derail the thread too much, but yeah, PSN is super-unfriendly, and if you're on PS3, it's SUPER SLOW ever since they implemented the new design as well.
The best way of finding stuff is just using the Playstation Store on your PC.

vert hates game, vert rents/buys three copies of the game. I love the internet.

I miss vert. He was entertaining.

I've found his profile on discogs and thought about harassing him... but I decided not to be a douche.

I've heard of [a] Vert/Virt before, isn't he a video game music composer?

Didn't he compose part of the Retro City Rampage soundtrack, among others?

Or is that someone else?

Pretty sure the "vert" guy here was not "virt" aka Jake Kaufman, the composer.